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"We kick you in the balls as hard as we can... then it's your turn!"
— The Roshambot team's website introduces their robot

Roshambot, stylised by the team as R O S H A M B O T and ROSHAMBOT, was a robot built by two mechanical engineering graduates from University of Sheffield.

The team intended to apply for Series 5 of Robot Wars, but ultimately failed to qualify. It is unknown whether they attempted to enter any future series of the show.

Design[]

Roshambot was a tracked robot powered by a modified pair of two-stroke Tecumseh petrol engines. Thanks to its design, it could run inverted and despite limited information on the final robot, the team believed Roshambot would stand out amongst the crowd of existing designs.[1]

"Up to now the majority of entrants to Robotwars have followed very similar design strategies. Team Roshambot will use a more radical approach."
— The Roshambot team promise to set about building their robot in a unique way

The robot's chassis was largely made from aluminium, with ladder-like supports bolted together to hold the heaviest components. The team opted to alter the petrol engines they had for Roshambot, which proved time-consuming as it was discovered they would not function properly upside-down. After trial and error with different parts, the team's modified engine setup worked.

"We anticipated a long session of twiddling the carb setting screws and turning the thing over again and again so the recoil start was scrapped in favour of G's Makita powerdrill on the end of one of the crankshafts. The first problem was that the drill wasn't powerfull enough to turn the engines over. So we removed one of the sparkplugs to reduce the compression force and tried again. The drill was now able to turn the engine over and it almost started. After a couple of goes we put the spark plug back gave the setting screws a final twiddle and tried again
Now the engines were a little warmer the drill could just turn them both over against the compression and on the third go they fired! We had anticipated spending a good hour or two to reach this stage but it reved beautifully and within seconds we were reving the engine nicely on the gear lever throttle.
After ten minutes of standing in a plume of exhaust adjusting the screws Phil declared himself happy and we stopped the test before the whole shakey assembly of engines chain and about 10 G-cramps could fall to bits. Celebratory cup of tea and big grins all round.
"
— Roshambot's engine setup is a success

Roshambot would rely on superior pushing power to dominate opponents in the arena, perhaps suggesting that the robot did not have an active weapon. However, this is unconfirmed as the team do not elaborate on weaponry.[2]

"A new breed of robot relying on high speed ramming. An interesting design using some new technology to robotwars."
— Team Supernova briefly describe Roshambot on their website

Unfortunately, no further updates are present for Roshambot, so it is unknown whether the robot was ever completed ahead of Series 5 auditions.

Etymology[]

The robot's name derives from Rochambeau or Ro-Sham-Bo, which is a more traditional name for the well-known game Rock Paper Scissors. This becomes a portmanteau as the team incorporate -bot into its name as well, a shortened version of "robot".

Comparisons are often made between robot combat and Rock Paper Scissors due to the tradeoffs typically involved in designing and building robots for competition, thus deepening the meaning behind Roshambot's name.

Series Record[]

Series Roshambot Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Did not enter
The Fourth Wars Did not enter
The Fifth Wars Failed to qualify
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Trivia[]

  • The team initially wanted to call their robot Ape's Hit, though this was likely rejected by production as it is a homophone for an inappropriate term.
  • During the build process, the team would seek assistance from Karl Asplin, who would himself successfully qualify for Series 5 with The Alien.[3]

References[]

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